A quick look at Australian Restaurant’s in Singapore

Western cuisine in Singapore is never just steaks and salads. A wide range of menus have been created by great chefs who think of how food can harmonize differences and bridge gaps in culture. Australian cuisine is one of the few in the Western world that offers a variety of dishes that departs from the traditional and explores the unique, just like Oriental cuisine does. If you want to know why, visit these interesting and deliciously endearing places in Singapore:

Graze

This place is an out-of-the-box restaurant dished out by its creative Australian owners who have made Singapore their second home. Casual dinners are Graze’s main come-on, attracting mostly middle-class professionals, expats and tourists who want to try their popular menu. For Graze, freshness is first and foremost. All of its ingredients airlifted from Singapore to ensure freshness, Graze makes sure the Australian tongue is well-satisfied in each course. Starting off is its thyme-and-cauliflower soup topped with shrimp strips.

The main course is a surprising combination of grilled scallops with tiger prawns and pasta sautéed in garlic with saffron fish broth. They also have a lavish barbecue menu, including beef tenderloin done medium rare served with fresh green salad. Waiting for you at the end of this sumptuous meal is a to-die-for dessert which Graze is popular for. The Michel Cluizel chocolate tart is bittersweet and served warm, and tastes more delicious when eaten with vanilla ice cream. Australian food has never been so satisfyingly good!

Located at 4 Rochester Park, Singapore.

Rivercafe

This restaurant may be the best kept Australian secret in Singapore. Tucked neatly along the banks of Singapore River, this place features a refreshing, alfresco setting that will work up your appetite as well as feed your mind and soul.

More than the food, Rivercafe’s main attraction is its obtrusive ambience. A restored warehouse from the 1920’s has been its home for almost a decade now and many of its loyal patrons have loved the green vines on its walls and the easy swoosh of the river which takes them to a new world, out from the hustle and bustle. However, this doesn’t mean the food takes second stage. Rivercafe’s specialties like the Australian beef tenderloin and squid rings spread with garlic butter.

The excellent creations of the chefs are unique and interesting, like the Salmon Tuna Carpacio in Verjuice Vinaigrette which is an explosion of tastes, kind of unfamiliar yet deliciously appetizing, enough for you to crave for more. The desserts are similarly excellent, visually appetizing and addictive. They serve this ‘flaming angel cake’ by literally setting the cake aflame, impressive and unconventional! The chocolate mud cake with raspberry sorbet and brandy is also quite pleasant and extraordinary.

Rivercafe comes out as a master in Australian dishes and adds a creative touch that makes it unique, a secret that you should definitely discover!

Located at #41 Robertson Quay, Singapore

Barossa

Busy executives and professionals prefer their meals unpretentious, speedily served but delicious. This is why Barossa has been frequented by men and women in power suits. Open for lunch and dinner and way through midnight, Barossa makes a perfect combination of Australian outback dining experience in a post-modernist, chic setting. Its alfresco outdoor setting is a nice touch to its elegant setting, giving a laid-back feel to an otherwise spruced up place.

Barossa’s most popular dish is, not surprisingly, Tasmanian smoked salmon. The surprise is actually on the fish which the chef has creatively topped with grapefruit and serves it with asparagus salad, a good combination that balances the tastes of fish, fruit and vegetable. Barossa is also one of the diners that serve traditional Australian desserts. Its Lamington-style butter pound cake is truly a winner. Also enticing is the Vanilla Chantily topped with white chocolate flakes, a well-deserved treat for the hardworking urban executive.

Located at 8 Raffles Avenue, #01-11 Esplanade Mall, Singapore.

The Moomba

Great food and excellent wine do make a perfect meal. Moomba, arguably one of the most popular Australian diners in Singapore, has attained that one-of-a-kind trade mark as a top dine-in restaurant and a high-standard winery. Calling itself ‘an Australian restaurant with a contemporary feel and wine shop,” Moomba has over the years maintained its stellar reputation and has reached high following from Singapore’s diners and food aficionados. And why not? Moomba has well taken cared of its best asset: executive chef Leonard Oh.

Chef Oh is one of those rare culinary artists and food geniuses who whips up dishes from out-of-the-box with spectacular results. The anti-pasto Moomba for example is something that will be instilled in your mouth and mind yet its ingredients are surprisingly modest- grilled eggplant, semi-dried tomatoes, tea-smoked chicken fillet and cold-smoked salmon, with jamon Serrano, tomato mustard herring, kalamata olives and pickles on a pesto crust. Ofcourse, who couldn’t resist tasting Chef Oh’s best specialty- the charcoal-grilled Kangroo loin which he sautées in garlic flower and tops it with sweet potatoes, enoki mushroom filled with miso plum sauce. And there’s more at the Moomba than food.

They also organize events such as the Mass Wood Wine dinner and the Torbreck Wine dinner which, aside from feeding you with the best Australian meals they can offer, will also feed your mind with interesting discussions from caliber speakers. And the discussions are done over glasses of rare vintage wines; now who could miss that?